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58 COMMERCE • www.cianj.org

THE HISPANIC BAR ASSOCIATION OF NEW JERSEY (HBA-NJ) plays a vital role in the New Jersey legallandscape, providing substantive, continuing legal

education programs to the legal and business communi-ties. The HBA-NJ’s popular Corporate CounselRoundtable series showcases many of the state’s mosttalented professionals in the fields of law and business.At a recent roundtable held at the New JerseyPerforming Arts Center in Newark, an elite group of pan-elists with expertise in corporate governance, electionlaw, and sports media and entertainment law gatheredto provide insights on emerging legal issues. Session One, “Corporate Governance: Recent Issues in

Executive Compensation and Shareholder Activism” fea-tured Margaret M. Foran, vice president, chief gover-nance officer and secretary of Prudential Financial, andSabino (Rod) Rodriguez, partner, Day Pitney LLP, whoexplored corporate governance issues related to “say onpay” legislation. “Say on pay” is the shorthand term for arule in corporate law whereby a firm’s shareholdershave the right to an advisory vote on the compensationof executives. Posing the provocative question, “Whothinks CEOs are overpaid?” Foran elicited a lively legaldiscussion which quickly demonstrated how complexand emotionally charged the issues surrounding execu-tive compensation can be. Co-panelist Rod Rodriguezcautioned against overreacting to the current publicbacklash against excessive pay. He reminded the groupthat compensation determinations should not be one-size-fits-all and should be addressed accordingly. On the issue of shareholder activism, Foran stressed

the importance of regular communication, particularlywith institutional investors. Rodriguez emphasized gath-ering support early in the process to get a favorable out-come. Foran also sought the audience’s creative ideas onhow to encourage shareholder participation in the vot-ing process. John D. Rosero, vice president, corporatecounsel, Prudential, moderated the discussion.

The timely and rapidly evolving area of the law knownas “pay-to-play” legislation was the subject of Session Two,“Pay-to-Play Legislation: What You Don’t Know Can HurtYou.” Moderator Rafael Perez, partner, Cozen O’Connor,presented case-based questions designed to demystifysome of the complexities of the law. Jennifer M. Carillo-Perez, associate, Trenk, DiPasquale,

Webster, Della Fera & Sodono, PC, provided historical con-text for “pay-to-play” and updated the group on new ELECreporting requirements. Robert A. Ortiz, Jr., partner, Florio,Perrucci, Steinhardt & Fader, LLC, detailed the rules govern-ing financial contributions that an owner or employee canmake without disqualifying the company from potentiallylucrative bids. Victor A. Afanador, partner, Lite, DePalma,Greenberg & Rivas, LLC, stressed the importance of “issuespotting” and taking a careful step-by-step approach whencounseling clients in order to avoid costly mistakes. Session Three, “Sports Media & Entertainment Law:

Hot Topics in Venue Construction, Licensing, and theChallenges Presented by Instant News” provided atelling example of the profoundly complex legal andbusiness issues that arise in the age of YouTube, Twitter,and Facebook. Fernando M. Pinguelo, partner, Norris,McLaughlin & Marcus, P.A., moderated a panel of sports,media, and entertainment professionals and a televisionjournalist who analyzed a hypothetical (but all-too-famil-iar) case involving an athlete-musician-television person-ality dubbed “Bubble Boy.”

HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH

BY ROSEMARY DREGER CAREY

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

The Hispanic Bar Association of New Jersey Hosts Its Corporate Counsel Roundtable at the NJPAC

At the Hispanic Bar Association of New Jersey’s most recent Roundtable,held at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark,

an elite group of panelists discussed corporate governance, electionlaw, and sports media and entertainment law. Photo by German Valencia

102 COMMERCE • www.cianj.org

HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH

Providing a logistical perspective, George A. Castro II,commissioner, Board of Commissioners of the NewJersey Sports & Exposition Authority, addressed how amajor arena might capitalize on the media sensation sur-rounding the bizarre Bubble Boy story. Providing themedia view, Walt Kane, anchor/reporter for News 12New Jersey, opined that the Bubble Boy story—thoughnot compelling in a hard news sense—would ultimately

be deemed “newswor-thy” if the story wentviral on Twitter, Face-book, and other socialmedia. Kane cautioned,“If it’s what peoplecare about, ignore it atyour peril.” Asked how to handle

potentially damagingvideo clips of BubbleBoy on the Internet ifhe were a “client,” pan-elists emphasized theneed for a communica-tions plan. They alsoextolled the benefits of

implementing a formal media training program whenworking with professional athletes and celebrities toprotect one’s brand. Evelyn Tollinche, senior counsel, BALA (Digital), MTV

Networks, rejected the notion that Bubble Boy shouldbe reined in for his outrageous media antics. “In a cre-ative environment a degree of uncertainty is expected,”Tollinche said. “It is far better to exploit blogs and otherforms of social media that are highlighting those antics.I’d recommend incorporating them into one’s program-ming to achieve the outcome desired.”The Roundtable concluded with a networking lunch-

eon in the NJPAC atrium. HBA-NJ President MiguelAlexander Pozo, partner, Lowenstein Sandler, PC, moder-ated and hosted the day’s event. Other co-sponsorsincluded Prudential Financial, blog sponsor e-LessonsLearned and media sponsor COMMERCE magazine. n

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(L-R) HBA-NJ President Miguel Alexander Pozo, part-ner, Lowenstein Sandler, PC; Fernando M. Pinguelo,

partner, Norris, McLaughlin & Marcus, P.A.; Kenneth Rasbaum, Rasbaum Associates, LLC; and Stephen Kim, associate, Sedgwick, Detert,Moran & Arnold, LLP. Photo by German Valencia